Demonizing and demolishing health care

Has anybody noticed that we are slowly demolishing and demonizing public health care in the Philippines? 

I just did a quick study on some of the more well known and patronized public hospitals in Metro Manila and this is what I picked up: the Philippine General Hospital built in 1907 is 111 years old. The Fabella Hospital, at its present location is 67 years old. The Philippine Heart Center built in 1975 is 43 years in existence. The Philippine Children’s Medical center is currently celebrating its 38th year anniversary, The oldest I googled was San Lazaro Hospital which started as a clinic in 1577, relocated to its present site in 1784, taken over by American colonizers in 1898, and turned over to Filipino management in 1918.

Someone recently pointed out to me that all the hospitals around the Quezon Memorial Circle are vital centers that were put up by former First Lady Imelda Romualdez Marcos and after that nothing major, vital or significant has ever been undertaken by any subsequent administration, government, president or first lady for that matter. Any new hospital is built by local government to service their registered voters and residents. Those hospitals are built from billion peso loans to be paid from LGU tax money that could have been used for schools etc.  

As the population of the poor grows bigger and bigger, the financial capacity of the middle class has shrunk drastically that they now all share in whatever services and space is available in public hospitals.

People who once upon a time could afford Makati Med, St. Luke’s or Medical City are now gravitating or patronizing government hospitals in much the same way that a number of families have opted to leave private schools and enroll their children in public schools or adopt the home school system.

Isn’t it strange that government and businesses all focus on “infrastructure development” but limit themselves to tollways, airports, and the likes but nobody ever talks about public hospitals or schools! In fact, many politicians who don’t understand what true civil service is all about have been promoting “Privatization” of existing public facilities and institutions! It’s so easy for those jokers to do that since they don’t own the facilities and they don’t take ownership of them as patrons. They just want to facilitate the transfer of ownership and management from government to private corporations who want them.

If that’s not enough, has anybody stopped to consider or officially investigate how much money and new facilities does the government build every year in direct proportion to population growth? Do any of our congressmen and senators even realize that most of the public hospitals in Metro Manila are old, dilapidated or congested? In the event of a major catastrophe, do the DOH, AFP and Malacañang know if we have enough hospitals and facilities to house or attend to the sick, injured or in need of hospitalization? We evidently don’t have enough major or specialized public hospitals and the government has not funded expansion of existing ones. The only thing we can take comfort in is that the President has taken a personal initiative of building hospitals for our men and women in uniform.

But what about a medium or long term plan for the construction, funding and management of specialized public hospitals for the three main islands or all the regions of the Philippines. We need a real plan because without it, we only have a “Wish.”

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It is unfortunate that in their zeal to defend the public from the ill effects of the Dengvaxia vaccine, our lawmakers and certain government officials have effectively pushed back the country’s immunization and vaccination into the dark ages. Instead of wisely investigating and addressing the complications brought about by Dengvaxia, it has become a situation where it’s every man for himself or better yet, every interest promoting its own. No thanks to the politicization and sensationalism many people are now confused, hesitant and misinformed about the benefits of all established vaccines particularly for measles, etc.

Given the situation, I believe that Secretary Francisco Duque needs to make up his mind if he will simply roll with the punches or if he will take a more pro-active or aggressive stand against the mudslingers and rumor mongers. It is not pleasant to be in the kitchen so to speak, but even more lives will be endangered if the DOH and true medical experts choose to be silent on the matter. Don’t allow your fear or discomfort to endanger the next generation.

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Congratulations to the officers and men of the Land Transportation for the many achievements and changes they have managed to put in place in the last six months. As we all know, they managed through sacrifice and hard work, the release of five-year driver’s license cards, improved and shortened the servicing time at their frontline windows, undertaken many law enforcement operations.

Most recently, they have reopened their vehicle license plate making facility that we have all been suggesting to previous administrators. It is still April so I’m still hopeful that those license plates we already paid for will  be released as promised, “May at the latest.” Another new “innovation” that I learned of from NCR Director Chuck Guinto is that the LTO has entered into a memorandum of understanding with the Landbank of the Philippines to establish an e-portal or an electronic facility for bulk payments being made to the LTO by companies for registering their fleets of vehicles such as logistics firms, taxi and limousine services.

I did not know that the LTO handles an estimated P7 billion annually and one of the “risk” factors for clients and the LTO involves the physical handling of cash. Introducing “cashless” or electronic payments is a great innovation toward convenience and security. Congratulations to the LTO and Landbank.

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